Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
In 1880 the Scottish chemist James Ballantyne Hannay claimed that he had made diamonds by heating a mixture of paraffin, bone oil, and lithium to red heat in sealed wrought-iron tubes. In 1893 the French chemist Henri Moissan announced he had been successful in making diamonds by placing a crucible containing pure carbon and iron in an electric furnace and subjecting the very hot (about...
We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.
Regular users of Britannica may notice that this comments feature is less robust than in the past. This is only temporary, while we make the transition to a dramatically new and richer site. The functionality of the system will be restored soon.